Seventeen boats contested Race 8 of the Morse Air Systems Midweek Mariners Pursuit Series and the Doctors of Northcote Spinnaker Series on Wednesday. The 15-18 knot southwesterly breeze must have been chilly, but at least it wasn't gale force!

Sea Eagle was the winner of the pursuit race, with Revenge placing second and Obsession third.

Matador took line honours in the spinnaker race, as well as first place on IRC and third on AMS. Eureka was first on PHS, followed by Antagonist and Vagrant. In the remaining AMS results, Vagrant won with Antagonist second.

Best start went to Charlotte on four seconds, while Revenge took out the Half Tonne Challenge.

Thank you to RO Ian Guyett, Selwyn Stokes and Brandon Phillips for their work in the tower.

Saturday 30 July

HBYC again conducted our Club Marine Winter Series racing on Saturday, as part of their Brass Monkey series. Strong northerly breeze threatened to give us yet another cancelled day of racing, but it backed off sufficiently for the race officials to get a heat in.

Thank you to HBYC and our volunteers who assisted on the water on Saturday. In particular, we have a special thank you from Bas Huibers, a member of RYCV:

...my S80 Merak nearly sank after a broach under spinnaker during the HBYC Brass Monkey race on Saturday. All 6 crew ended up in the water and three were picked up by the William Paterson who subsequently towed the boat with the other 3 crew successfully back to RMYS where shore staff and volunteers were standing by with warm clothes and an automatic pump to get the boat floating more comfortably again.

Please pass our most sincere thanks to all RMYS staff and volunteers for their assistance, especially the crew on the William Paterson who not only brought us and the boat to safety, but also gave us a lift back to RYCV.

We are pleased to report that Merak made it back to RYCV safely - eventually!

Sunday 31 July

Commodores' Challenge

Sandringham YC hosted the resail of the inaugural Commodores' Challenge on Sunday, after the original day of racing was blown out back in May. The regatta was contested in the SYC fleet of 7.5m Beneteau yachts. Five teams of female sailors represented their yacht clubs; RMYS, SYC, Royal Brighton YC, Royal Geelong YC and Mornington YC. Our representatives were skipper Monica Jones, Kathleen Mackian, Kristen Buckland, Dee Mason and Janina Goethel.

All boats carried over a result for Race 1 from the event in May. The SYC team was expected to perform well, and showed their abilities by taking out Races 3 and 4 after a slow start in Race 2. The team representing RMYS finished a comfortable second overall after a clear win in Race 2. Congratulations and thank you to our team for their excellent efforts.

Only two boats got a result in the ORCV's winter race in the Cruising division, with racing for the two main divisions abandoned due to a lack of wind. The race management team seemed to try everything to get racing finished but unfortunately couldn't get it to happen. The next ORCV race is on 14 August.